MPC (Micron PC) Millenia 940I

The MPC Millennia 940i's swift performance gives it plenty of appeal. Using an Intel 3.8-GHz Pentium 4 570J and 1GB of DDR2-533 SDRAM, the Millennia notched a score of 99 in our WorldBench 5 tests. Although we haven't reviewed any similarly configured systems, that puts this Millennia ahead of the average earned by PCs using a 3.6-GHz Pentium 4 and 1GB of RAM. The machine also posted impressive numbers in our graphics tests--it had the second-best frame rates in the April 2005 round of performance systems we looked at, nabbing 155 fps in the Return to Castle Wolfenstein game at 1024 by 768 resolution.

Another feature that sets this Millennia apart: You can configure it with lots of storage. Our test system had two 400GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, plus another drive with 250GB of storage. Altogether, that's more than the average user will likely need. But it does give a good indication of the system's future expandability should you configure a Millennia with less space.

The 19-inch MPC F1925 flat-panel display produced crisp fonts that were easy to read even at smaller sizes, though colors in our high-resolution photo of children looked somewhat muted. In our DVD test, the 940i produced flawless playback and color quality. A Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card combined with Creative Inspire P7800 speakers produced deep, realistic sound that would please any gamer or movie fan.

Nothing really stands out about the 940i's charcoal-colored midsize tower case. It has audio jacks, two USB ports, and a FireWire port at the bottom of the front panel. A DVD-RW drive and a CD-RW drive at the top of the case are tan-colored, clashing with the rest of the dark case. None of the ports on the back are labeled.

To open the case, you just remove one thumbscrew, and the side slides off. The interior is roomy and neat. One downside: The very wide design of the GeForce-based graphics card blocks an adjacent expansion slot, rendering it useless.

Upshot: The Millennia 940i Dream Machine is a strong performer that will appeal to power users and gamers who are satisfied with bland case design.

Andre Kvitka